Brian Friel, The Gentle Island

Michael Parker (University of Oxford)

Ed. by Ian Campbell Ross, Trinity College Dublin
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.4: Irish Writing and Culture, 400-present.
Vol. editors: Paul Delaney (Trinity College Dublin), Anne Markey (Dublin City University), Ian Campbell Ross (Trinity College Dublin), Sinéad Sturgeon (Queen's University Belfast)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1971

Places

Ireland, Republic of (Eire) (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

The Gentle Island was Brian Friel’s eighth stage play, and premiered on 30 November 1971 at the Olympia Theatre, Dublin. Although initially the play’s subject appears to be familial and parochial – the lives of the sole survivors of a tiny, island community off the west coast of the Irish Republic, and the impact on them of the arrival of two visitors from the mainland – its concerns are much wider. It explores many of the crucial issues affecting contemporaneous Irish culture, not least questions of identity, sexuality and gender, language and authority.

The play was composed during a period of profound political, cultural and economic crisis on the island of Ireland. Its opening scene depicts the imminent …

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2954 words

Citation: Parker, Michael. "The Gentle Island". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 September 2008 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10220, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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